Shui (Yiliang)

Shui of Baiyan, Yiliang County, Yunnan, China is currently extinct. My best guess is that it was a Northern Tai (Buyi) language.

On April 10, 2013, I visited Baiyan village 白岩村, Long'an township 龙安乡, Yiliang County 彝良县, Yunnan, China, which is an ethnic Shui village. The Shui language there already extinct, but may be Northern Tai based on the exonym, geographic location, and the one word given. There was one word remembered by an elderly ethnic Shui man: ka33 tou11 ‘chopsticks’.

According Baiyan locals, the ancestors of the Shui of Yiliang had migrated from Taihe County, Ji’an Prefecture, Jiangxi. They moved to Sandu County for 42 years, then moved to Yiliang County in 1720.